#43 - Maanasa Gopal: Living Like It Matters

Maanasa Gopal lives life as a brilliant art project.

In this Natural Genius conversation, Maanasa talks about curiosity, discipline, dreams, planning, Antarctica, creative work, and the people who help us become brave enough to live fully.

Maanasa is the founder of SuperBlond, a brand strategist who has worked with TikTok, GoPro, Insta360, foodpanda and DraperTV, and a former biochemistry research scientist who has taken part in climate expeditions to Antarctica. She has travelled across all seven continents, minted the first NFT in Antarctica, made the world’s longest food delivery, and is now working on a three-part body of work documenting her 20s.

This episode explores:
- Why Maanasa feels genuinely excited to be alive
- How curiosity became a life thesis
- Dreaming of all seven continents with no money, network or strong passport
- Antarctica, risk, character and the magic of following dreams
- The importance of good paper, planning and 110 GSM
- Depression, grief, support and choosing life
- Her mother Shanti’s belief, courage and influence
- Network School, digital nomad life and returning to childhood curiosity
- Building with women, supporting dreams and documenting a life

Content note: this conversation includes discussion of severe depression, suicidal thoughts, betrayal, legal conflict, and mental health challenges. In Australia, Lifeline is 13 11 14. In an emergency call 000.

Guest links:
• Maanasa’s world: https://www.diaryofmaanasa.com/
• Maanasa’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/diaryofmaanasa/

Conversation mentions:
• Network School: https://ns.com/samanthaleebell/invite
• Frank Ocean’s Blonde: https://open.spotify.com/album/3mH6qwIy9crq0I9YQbOuDf
• Balaji’s Substack: https://balajis.com/

Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Maanasa Gopal
01:03 Being excited to be alive
03:03 Following dreams and the magic around them
05:40 Seven continents, Antarctica and impossible dreams
08:45 SuperBlond, science, stationery and 110 GSM
11:20 Depression, loss and choosing life
13:43 Maanasa’s mother, courage and support
16:50 Rap, curiosity and finding her own voice
21:10 Network School, Bali and factory reset
26:24 The 20s Project: book, film series and album
28:34 Supporting women and other dreamers
30:32 Creative work, Frank Ocean and making art for yourself
34:19 Friendship, security and imperfect action
37:18 Her mother’s belief and taking risks
39:42 Family, time and cherishing people

Credits:
Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Kiama and Network School, 25 April 2026.
Produced at the Kiama office, 25 April - 11 May 2026.

Natural Genius: https://naturalgenius.com.au

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. I can imagine you'd want to hear from a very accomplished young businesswoman who is full of joy. She's a traveler. She's very good at self-care. She's great at growing businesses and connecting with big brands. Enjoy hearing from Manessa. Manasseh, welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. How wonderful to be reunited. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, this is such a treat. You and I used to be friends at the cafe when we were at network school together. I still remember your colourful pens and your amazing discipline. Your diary and your organization. And over that four months that we spent together, just spending time co-working was always full of joy. So thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

Tell me where that joyfulness comes from. I think I'm just genuinely in general excited to be alive. Uh I love that. Even sometimes I'm surprised by how much love I have for being alive. Even if I have something like that's bad that's happening, uh, I feel like okay, it's part of this journey. And I have like a life thesis that I've thought about a lot, and I feel like it's just part of me where I feel and believe we're all temporary arrangement of atoms with consciousness. Uh, so our life is very short, our time conscious is very brief. And, you know, like uh by like genetic lottery, I'm monasa in this lifetime. And uh maybe I'm living till I'm 90, which is typically when my average age in my family line. So it's still very short. And this planet is amazing. People are amazing. There's so many different things that you can be curious about and you can learn about. I also love people in general. Uh, and like when I, for example, like, you know, we used to spend time, like you used you had your own table at the cafe. I have like my corner spot, which still is the same exact spot that I sit at the cafe. Nothing's changed. I still have like a whole bag of pens that I carry around everywhere. I love stationery, I love drawing. Uh, so my general joy, I almost wake up every day being so excited, being like, oh my god, I have to like physically force myself to lie down on the bed and be like, nah, you still need to get like a few more, a little bit more rest, please.

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Oh, that is so beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

Yeah. So I just I just have like genuine joy and so grateful to be alive, honestly. So grateful.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

Oh, and before we were recording, you were talking about your curiosity and your excitement around people. So anytime people are going for their goals, you are so excited.

SPEAKER_01 3:03

Because it's so it's magical, Sam. Like when people are following their dreams, they have magic sprinkled around them. And I want to just bathe in that magic, and I want to like support them. You because it's hard to go after your dreams, it's hard to have this, you know, like conviction and this delusional version of yourself from the future. And people who are delusional enough to believe in that future about themselves, I want to be around them, I want to help them, I want to do whatever it is. It's like for me, so I'm an atheist, but I think it's the closest time that you come in contact with this transcendent state, you know, where you're like, wait, I believe in this imagination of myself from the future, you know.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

And tell me, has do you think that when you see it in others, do you do you resonate with that because you have achieved so much in your own life? Is it such that, like, do you think that with so many things that you've achieved so far, that uh you acknowledge that it's hard, or do you think that you get so curious that you just somehow open up pathways to be able to create?

SPEAKER_01 4:18

It's okay, so in my head, uh whatever I've done in my life, I've just followed my curiosity and my delusional like imagination of who I am from the future. Um, so for me, it is not like, oh, I know it's hard. No, I know it's fucking magical.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

And I know this is part of the reason for my question because I thought maybe you might might not, yeah, you might have a different approach to others.

SPEAKER_01 4:44

Yes, I know it's super magical. Um, like one incident I can think about. So when I was 19 or 20, so I come from India, Chennai. Um, and like my parents are not rich, I have no family, money, network, nothing. Indian passport is weak, uh, just you know, uh based on pure facts, you know, this is not like a subjective opinion. And so it's like no money, no pat no good passport. Like, also I'm a woman, and I'm for those of you who cannot see it from here, I'm five feet tall, not much defense on my end. Um, but then I had this I had this dream when I was like 18 or 19, uh that I'm gonna travel the world. Well, facts.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

I love that you just said that you're a five foot. I was trying really hard when I did the introduction to not mention your size because I was like, it's not about your size, but you well, it is.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

I have like a seven feet personality for a five feet person, it's just what it is. Um, and I know how magical it is. And I said this thing where I was I had this dream to just see the world outside, and I want I was like, by the time I'm 25, before I'm 25, I want to go to all the seven continents on earth. And let me tell you Sam, everything in my life worked out because of that dream. I had my career because of the dream because and I had money because of that dream. I had my self-respect because of that dream, and I know how magical it is. And I remember when I was 25, and I was, you know, like in Antarctica, the toughest continent that I had to like conquer in my own uh, you know, like vision. And right before I got to Antarctica, I had so many things that didn't work out, so many things that got went wrong, but it built character. And uh, for like people who don't know the story, the TLDR is this. I ended up convincing a Chilean airline company to give me a small aircraft that I can take to Antarctica in peak winter. And Chilean military performed the same route before us, like maybe a year ago, and 38 people died because it blast midair. And I still remember when like so the aircraft didn't take off for three times. Three days we tried it didn't because it was uh like a lot of like wind and gust, and also we needed like $30,000 in if I'm not wrong, 48 hours or something, which we ended up flipping NFTs to make that money. And then we took this aircraft and we landed airplace. I know, and we landed it in an Antarctica, and I remember when I left South America because the altitude of these smaller aircraft is just higher. I remember for the first time in my life, I saw the whole continents outline. You know, I've seen country outlines, but I've never seen a continent outline. And I remember thinking that if this aircraft were to blast midair right now, I'd die doing what I love, and that's the way, only way I want to go. So I know that following your dreams is the most magical time of the life. It's the closest that in my head I can come to like experiencing God, you know. So that's why I'm so excited when anyone's like, Oh, I think I'm gonna do this. I'm like, you can do this, go after it. Like way bigger things than you can even envision is going to happen. I did not envision my career. My career came because of it. I did not envision the the like the kind of money that I was able to get when I was like 24, 23. For someone from India, I couldn't imagine it, right? And all of these things worked out because I had a dream, like Martin Luther King.

SPEAKER_00 8:27

That is so stunning. And so tell me about now. Tell me about the projects that you're working on now. You've got a couple of different, well, is it three different businesses that you're running now, or it what's the the yeah, so um on work and so I'm a day adjourned brand strategist, that's like my main job.

SPEAKER_01 8:45

Um, I have I'm the founder of Super Blonde, and I've had the honor to work with amazing brands like TikTok, GoPro, Insert360, Food Panda, and I loved all of the different projects that we were able to get together. So that's my first business. The second one is a website agency for Academia. So I used to be a scientist before, uh, a biochemistry scientist across Singapore, Australia. I used to live in King's Cross and Sydney, uh, East Africa, and also in India. And so that was like a website agency catering uh purely for researchers. And I had the honor of working with amazing professors and scientists from like MIT, Stanford, NTU, NUS. And the last thing is my, you know, my baby. I I this is the hill I will die on. People need good quality paper. I refuse to write on paper that's like less weight than 110 GSM. So I this is like my contribution to the world. Uh two things. One, the world needs good quality paper. Come on, it's 2026. We cannot be writing on 60 and 80 GSM paper anymore. And the second thing is I love planning and I love it when people get their shit together because I love that for myself. So I have like a like a stationery shop that sells like journals and planners. It's deirdreams.com and I love it. So these are the things that I do. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:06

I love seeing your brightness and your extra spark when you started talking about stationery that shouldn't. And I know how you use it. And this is part of what I remember from their time together, how organized and the pens and the how organized your diary was as well, and that you would be disciplined enough to be able to, I assume, set out what you needed to do for the day and for the week and for the month and for the year, and then keep going.

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yeah, I got the whole 10 years plan to see. I we cannot predict how long we'll be alive, right? But right now I have like a plan on what I want to do, like up till I'm 40 or something, I'm like, I have a like a rough plan. Okay, this is like the direction I want to go. But because I'm also like old enough, like I'm in my 20s, but I'm in my late 20s, and I know that not everything is gonna work out according to the plan, but it's important to have like this North Star. So that's why I just love planning. Our life is too short to not make the best out of it.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

And who influenced you to be like that? Did you is that something that you came to or you read a book, or you were just like that anyway? Or did is it somebody that was a good guide for you that helped you find your way with that uh direction or that structure?

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Well, two things happened in my late teen years. One uh was I became depressed when I was 16 and 17. And I like at the worst part of my depression, I actually wanted to end my life because I felt like I was useless. And I was like, you know, like, am I even taking up oxygen? I don't deserve it. So that was like the first thing. And when I got out of it, bless my mom. She is the best. She got me out of it. She's she was with me through thick and thin, and she was like, I'm there. I want my daughter back. I'm gonna be there for you. That was the first thing. And the second thing was um during my late teens, uh, maybe when I was 18 or 19, I had like a friend from university. I was just like chatting to him like like on one day. The next day morning, he passed by like a bike crash uh when he was dying, and it was like 7 a.m. Somebody told me that, hey, this person like passed away this morning. And I was like, stop it, you're kidding. But he actually did. Um, I feel like both of those things, like coming close to like wanting to like lose my own life and seeing someone just go off like this. And he had a lot of dreams. He wanted to go to France, he had a lovely dog named Ted. Like he had he was a very loving person, but just like seeing him there. And then I remember at his funeral, his dad was like, you know, clutch his body and was saying that you wanted to go to France or you wanted to do all these things. I think both of those things like made me realize it's truly a blessing to even get to be alive. And you know, and we need to really go after our dreams and make the best out of it. And just my own journey of you know, like overcoming like peak depression, and from like not being numb to not being able to feel any emotion, nothing, and like have no love for myself or the world, to coming to the other side and seeing like, oh, there's a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's beautiful, it's magnificent, you know. We can create the life that we want. We don't have to be stuck in these ways. I think just that thing, it made me like made me the person who I am today. Oh also, shout out to my mom.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Yeah, I was gonna say, tell me about mom too, because it sounds like you've got such a beautiful relationship.

SPEAKER_01 13:43

Oh, for sure. My mom is an angel. I love my mom. Any if anyone pulls out like anything before interviews, whatever I've done, my mom will come up in it. Uh, because it's the truth. Uh, my mom is from like a village in India that's not even on Google Maps, okay? But she really is the baddest. Uh, she uh she updates to our generation. I taught her so many things about the generation, and she's like, oh, this is how you guys do it. She's constantly updating. Recently, I told her about LLMs, and now she started to use Chad GPT. And then she I told her about therapy, and she started now, she's like, Oh, so I can ask Chad GPT about like my patterns and everything. I was like, Yes, go off, girl. Um my mom's amazing. Um my mom, like I she always told me that but when she got you know like married and she was pregnant and everything. So my mom had like a couple of things. One is my mom had stage fright. Uh, the other thing was my mom uh felt like didn't feel confident about herself and also didn't feel confident about her English. So those were like some things. And she said that she, in her own words, she says that she's a coward, you know, she doesn't go after things. But when I was born, she was like, she wanted a girl, she did not want a boy, she wanted a girl, and she was like, this girl is not gonna be anything like me. And that was like the mindset she had. So uh when I was three, I was already on stages. So for me, like stage feels like home, talking feels like home. And it was only after I became an adult I actually had to learn for myself that there's something called stage fright, and it's not like a fun thing. So I did not know those things because my mom, like, she just took it off my system when I was before even I had like realization that I'm an individual. So my mom is amazing, and like she's the closest that I would come to like God, you know, like um now.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

You've got an idea for a mom.

SPEAKER_01 15:49

It's true, and I feel I also realize like I have such great opinion of women in general because my mom is such a great role model of how amazing women are. They're smart, they're high integrity, they're very supportive, they help you. And that like shapes like your belief system, right? On like a specific gender. You're like, wow, this is the standard. Great. I've had the same, you know, like my best friend and I, we've known each other since we were four years old. We're still chatting all the time. Like my female friendships are so strong because my mom set the bar so high. Um, so yeah, shout out to mom, Shanti. My mom's name is Shanti, and it means peace, and she brings me peace.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

Oh, it sounds like it, and so much support too. I was lucky enough to see you performing on YouTube actually yesterday. Really? Yeah, and tell me, how did you learn spoken words? Yeah, you were just amazing. I wonder if you might have shocked everyone in the audience. They might not have known that you had that skill.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Okay, so during teen years, I was rebellious too. I think it's something of the hormones. I got my periods, and I was like, I was first like shook. Wait, what do you mean I'm gonna bleed every month? And then I was sec like secondly, I was shook. I was like, what do you mean I'm gonna do this till I'm 60? Because my mom, like, you know, had hers till she was 60. And she was like, Yeah, you're probably fertile too. I'm sorry, girl. Uh and I was like, I was very appalled. And I had like all these scenic things, and my dad moved back. So I uh my dad used to like work abroad in Dubai and in Pombay. And then like um he moved back when I was probably 12. And my mom had a very different approach to raising children. My mom raised me on Socrates. She was like, ask why. Ask why for everything. I was rewarded for being curious, I was rewarded for being myself, you know. My dad had a very authoritarian approach towards parenting, where he was like, do things just because I said so. So it was like completely clashing with the worldview that I had by the time I was 12. So I was like very like, oh my god, I was having anger and all these things, you know, because I was like, first off, this parenting style, I'm not even used to this because you're not telling me why I have to do things. My mom always told me you have to ask why for everything. And my mom always rewarded curiosity, but now I was getting punished for being curious, right? If I was like, well, why should I put my shoes a certain way? My dad's approach would be do it because I'm your dad. And I said so. My mom's approach would be like, for example, one of the things, um fire. When I was like young, I was like, my mom told me, hey, fire burns. And I was like, no, I I I don't know. And she was like, well, you can touch it, and if you come to the same conclusion, then you would know it for yourself. So I put my finger in, it burned, and I've never played with fire again. So my mom's approach to parenting was very different. So when my dad moved in, I just had all this like pent-up anger because this is an adult telling me what to do and what not to do and giving me no explanation. And also, I was going through bullying in school a little bit, and so I had like all of this and like anger, and rap was the genre that healed me. Because um, like my favorite artists were going through all this anger, and they also had this switch between like deep inferiority complex and God complex, and I was experiencing it. So rap made me feel heard like no other genre. I discovered MM and whatever he was saying, I was going through too. And I remember um I I was big into like quizzing, debating, and arts in school. And every time I would win like a competition, I would like save up whatever money that I want. And like the first thing that I ever bought, first thing was an MM poster, and the second thing was MM's uh album recovery. That was that was like the thing that I got. And till date, I feel rap as a genre inspires me. Like recently, the thing that has inspired me for the last two years, actually, since it came out uh in October 2024, it's Dochi's album, Alligator Bias Never Heal. She made that album in a month, it's a masterpiece. I love it. And if you take from my top five albums of all time, I think four of them are like they have some form of rap in it.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Amazing. And how many musical instruments can you play?

SPEAKER_01 20:08

I'm not an expert at any of them. I can do the drums, I can do the piano, I can do the guitar. But I'm not like a like I'm not like innately musically talented. Uh I just I'm innately good at picking up things fast.

SPEAKER_00 20:24

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

Yeah. Because there are so many talented musicians at NS, and I'm like so in awe of them, I'm like, wow, you can just hear things and play the melody because that's something I cannot do. But then if you were to like show me a song or you were to give me it, and I had like, you know, like a day or two, then I can pick it up. That's like my musical level was like year, not like high.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

Oh, you bring extra warmth to my heart talking about how you just picked them up. Tell me what one back a year or oh no, we've worked up longer than a year. So we met in March last year. Tell me what had you come to network school with all of the many opportunities that you had in life at the time.

SPEAKER_01 21:10

Um, I was already a digital nomad. So this is my fifth year of being a digital nomad. So I was already a digital nomad. I tried everywhere, I tried South America, I tried the usually in Europe, like Portugal, I've tried like SF2 because I was in tech. Um, then I landed in Bali for two years on and off. It's like a popular hub. I love what Bali like gave me. I love the friends that I made in Bali, like, shout out to them. And the thing for me about Bali was Bali was just vibes. A lot of people like I love vibes, but honestly, my curiosity in life and like following my dreams matter more to me than money, more to me than everything else. And I realized for my own self that I actually don't care to have like a very uh extravagant. Lifestyle, you know. I really don't care much to have like a big house or like to do sauna every day to do ice baths, and like you know, my I'm fine living like with just bare minimums if that meant that I can go after like creating something with my life, you know? And Bali, I feel like the end goal for a lot of people in Bali is just a great lifestyle. And that was like a lifestyle like clash for me because I couldn't get like, okay, so what do you want to do after that? Right. And I made amazing friends and I love them. And a lot of them are, they feel the same way, like me, me too. But the reason I came to NS, it was very serendipitous. I actually didn't even plan. I lost access to my Twitter account from like my teen years. And I want, I don't know why I wanted to open it. So I hadn't touched that account for 10 years or something. And then I was like, oh, great. And then I lost access. So I went to this old email account from like my school days, uh, where I where the reset password came. And along there, I had followed Bology for now more than 10 years. And I had like Bology's like blast on ZubStack was the second email. First was Twitter's reset your password, second was Bology's uh news blast, and hey, join NS. And I just applied to it. Like I usually I'm the kind of like meticulous person who would draft my email, like draft my application responses on a Google Docs, read it for a couple of times and some submit it. But I directly typed like on the form like for NS and submitted it. And in four hours I got accepted. And I was like, oh, I guess I'm going to NS now. And that's really how I ended up. And I love NS because it's it's a combination of vibes and ambition. You know, I mean great people like you, for example, who are like, you know, they have great outlook on life, but they're also ambitious. They are constantly in search of what's their calling and like what they want to do. And I that's why I feel like NS has been a good place for me. And the fact that everything, like your food and like everything is pretty much automated, you have nothing to do but to sit with your thoughts. And when you do it long enough, it factory resets you to like your factory settings of who you were as a kid. And as a kid, I was exactly like this.

SPEAKER_00 24:21

Oh God, I love the way that you say things. Factory reset. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:27

I love an answer.

SPEAKER_00 24:29

What has been factory reset while you've been here?

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Really just coming back to my life's thesis that follow your curiosity. Really that. And I feel like as an adult, you have taxes, you have like the rent, you got like to take care of your parents, so many things. And I agree. Okay, I'm a responsible adult. And you know, like I take care of my parents too. And um I'm like big on like, you know, like having like your basic stuff sorted. I'm not a struggling artist. Uh I had my money sorted when I was like pretty young. And but still, I think like at some point, like as an adult, at least for me in my mid-20s, I got caught up in like, you know, like, oh, maybe I should make a lot of money. Maybe I need like a hundred mil or whatever. But then I was like, wait a minute, I actually don't care about that. I know like what I want, what's my fire money, like financial independence, retirement early money. But then what matters to me more is curiosity. So that's who I was as a kid. I was questioning everything. I was very unapologetically me as a kid. I was like, I had my visions of what I wanted to do, and I was always like going after them. I really didn't care about like I didn't care. Like I didn't care to appease anybody as a kid, and I had like I was so excited to be me that I didn't like try to be anybody else, and I feel like that's where I am back again, you know. But also it could be that I'm in my late 20s, and people say you do factory reset, you know, like this 20s is like a tsunami. By the end of the tsunami, there's like rainbow, and you're like, wait a minute, I'm here. I'm who I was as a kid.

SPEAKER_00 26:12

Well, all the power to you, I think. Tell me about the upcoming project or projects. What's uh what's in your sights at the moment? What are you looking forward to?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

I am very excited to I'm working on what I like the working title is the 20s project. It is a three-part body of work um of my so far the most beautiful decade of my life, the 20s. And it is a book, a film series, and my debut album. So I'm working on it. Um and um I'm just really excited about it. I'm in the process of a good, hopefully good book deal. And I'm excited about it because first I think that, you know, like as humans, it's our purpose in life to experience life, question it, and create the world that we want to see. The world I want to see is for people to take their lives very seriously and like make the best out of it. And I'm a data point of someone who is living that way. And I just want to see if like a girl, like who I was at 17, there are so many girls like that in like especially developing countries who have so much ambition and love for lives. They just don't have resources, they don't have guidance, they don't have so many things. And if one of them, even one of them, get a hold of my work, they read it and they're like, I'm gonna go after it. I'm gonna go after my dreams, my job's done. And that's like where I am. I am in love with the concept of documenting your life. People before us, like Da Vinci and like, you know, so many people have done it. I've journaled since I was six to eight years old. I have all my journals from then. I got a planner since I was like eight or something, and I'm so big on documenting life, and I'm very excited to like put out like a body of work of what 20s feels like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 28:19

Oh, so exciting. And when you're talking to those young women or uh young souls, what uh what works to pass on as tips for them because you could say so much.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

First, the it has to be inherent. Like I you cannot make a horse drink the water, you can only take it to the water, but there are horses that already want to drink the water, and then I support them in whatever way possible. Like one of the rules that I had. So I started my own company when I was 25. And one of the things that I had was employing other women. So for a long time, my company was 100% female run. I had amazing, like amazing, amazing women that I got to work with. And my policy was I would always listen to them. I'd be like, okay, what are your goals in life? You know, because I don't want this relationship to just be a work relationship for two, three years. We're gonna be decade-long like collaborators. What are your goals? Whatever their goals are, I would support them. And I would always pay them like way above whatever the country's paying rate was. And I always prioritize them following their dreams. Like one of the girls, her thing was to become a singer. So for Christmas, she got like a whole singing kit. One of the girls she was into like smut, uh, like smart romance books, and I and she probably she wanted to write them too. So I was like, okay, great, here you go. Here are some smart books for you. Go off. So my thing is like if people are already following their dreams in some capacity or they have that for them, I'm gonna help them in whatever way possible. But they need to like have started it first because I've done it before where I've like tried to like you know, like tell people how amazing being alive is, but if they don't inherently feel it themselves a little bit, it doesn't work. You cannot make people what they're not.

SPEAKER_00 30:05

I love that. How exciting! And when you were talking about the three areas of the work that you've got at the moment, so your first album, a book, and uh a film series, the film series, the film, yeah, and the film, and I was like, what? Amazing. So when you say film series, are we talking about how many is it episodes? Is that what you mean by film series?

SPEAKER_01 30:32

Yeah, yeah. At the moment, I want our I envision it to be eight episodes. And if I'm being really honest, my primary audience is me. I'm creating it for me because I think creative expression is our fundamental right. We need to put out the work, the work that we want to see first. So I'm doing it for me. Uh, because for me, my worldview is this is important. If you have lived a life and you have something that you want to document in creative ways, then do it. So that is my thing. So yeah, it's a three-part thing, and I've slowly started to work on it. The working title for the album is Everything I Need to Hear. Um, so really it's for me. But I feel like there will be people in the world who even even if it is like less than 10 people who are like, even if it's just my mom, who are like, oh, I felt seen with that particular piece of work. That's amazing because I feel so moved by the work that other people have put out for themselves. My favorite album of all time, Blonde by Frank Ocean. I love it so much that I named my company after it. My company is super blonde. Go superblonde.com.

SPEAKER_00 31:47

Well, because where I keep on wanting to ask you where that came from.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

No, the color palette, the color palette with the green, white, and black is literally from the album cover. Uh so Frank probably did that body of work for himself, but I have it has gotten me through everything, through like the worst periods of my life, some breakups, like everything. And that's the power of art, you know. You don't create it with the intention that it moves someone, but inevitably, if you do it for yourself, it ends up moving someone because it's probability-wise, mathematically possible. There's like at least one person in the world who feels about life the same way I do. And if it's my work reaches them, I have a peer now, and I'm like, wait, you're feeling it too? I feel too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 32:39

Oh I when you were talking about what you love about NS before, it was reminding me of the depth that I and the big-heartedness that I experienced when I was there. And you talked about your beautiful best friend that you've known each other for such a long time. That that depth it again, it was about depth for me, the depth of friendship that you have. And I was saying to one of my best friends, because uh I have many, um I think that it's completely fine to have a whole lot of best friends in life. I watched that for you, and uh and I think that the depth I was saying that it's so sweet to have it's like the jewels in life to get each other's nuances because and it's just you described about work and that knowing your teammates or the people that you work with, knowing their ambitions. Yes, yes, and knowing them over the years. Another dear friend was on the podcast recently, and she was talking about family business as a family, and really similar to what you just described, that they've known each other through the years and she's overpaid, and well, uh probably not overpaid, but she's paid more, paid really well. And then when people have gone through sicknesses, she's actually um supported them as well. And it's so lovely to share these examples. Oh, for sure, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:19

Well, oh, for sure. I mean, shout out to my best friend Kritika. Uh, I've known her forever. But the thing is, like, we're the same exact age, we're going through the same exact thing. She's as introspective as I am. She journals too, she meditates too. And we're like, okay, and what I love with like a lot of my you know, friendships in general, especially female friendships, is that we're all like, okay, here's my pattern. This is what I'm doing, and this is what I want to stop. And this is exactly what I told you right before, which is like, I'm trying to let go of perfection because it's it's a pattern that I'm having, which is not letting me put myself out there as much as I want. So I wanted to like postpone our podcast. But I was like, you know what? It's okay. I'm not prepared, but it's Sam, I'm here to have a good conversation. I want to do one thing this week. Every week I want to do one thing that is imperfect because I'm actually not even perfect. Even if I aim for perfection, there has been nothing in my life that I've done perfectly. So I just stress for nothing. Anyway, it's imperfect. Might as well do it. And yes, it's it's I think you have I think it is important to have gems in your life because it gives you a sense of security. And whenever I have, and I think this I don't take the sense of security lightly at all. I'm very, very blessed for it. Um, because I because I have like my mom or like my best friend, like they always like remind me of who I am, even when in my dark times where I'm like, oh, I suck. I'm the worst person. Like, I cannot achieve anything in my life. And they're like, Manus, shut up. You can do it. You can do it. This is who you were when you were 12. This is who you are when you're right now, you can do it. Go after it. And I feel like the sense of security of like, whenever I have troubles, I have someone to talk to. It's I don't take it lightly. The older I grow, I realize how rare it is. And I really and I might even go on to say that I'm a very secure person because I have like a secure support system.

SPEAKER_00 36:26

Yeah, that's exactly what I've observed through years of observing different friends, uh, colleagues, uh, business people, uh, with all different kinds of uh support structures or not support structures and hot on.

SPEAKER_01 36:44

Yeah, and it's so important because when I wanted to go after my dreams, like my mom or like my friend, like she never they never told me I'm delusional, I'm stupid, and I um they never told me those things. But imagine if like the people that are close to you like tell you those things, right? Then you're like, wait.

SPEAKER_00 37:07

Imagine if you were in Chile and then suddenly you're on the phone and mom and mom's like, darling, you're not gonna be able to do this.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Uh my mom, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:15

She I remember Imagine if it was the other way around. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:18

Yes. I was stuck in like South America on my way to Antarctica, and I was like, Mom, like, you know, I'm like, I don't even know if I can do this, and like all these things. My mom just told me one thing. She was like, taking risks is better than having regrets. Your 20s are for you to go take risks. You have no commitments, nothing. You're a brave girl, you can do it. My mom always did this to me, even when I was a baby at like four, right before I go on like a stage or anything. She would look me in the eyes, like crouch down to my level. She'd be like, You can do it. You can do anything. Believe in yourself, you can do it. And then she would, she I almost think my mom brainwashed me, but it was for the better. She brainwashed me into having this brain connection loop where she was like, just believe you can do anything you put your mind to. And I was like, Yeah, you're right. And have you seen this cartoon things with the circle in the eye when people get like brainwashed? Yeah, my mom did it when I was born. And then it's like you are Dubai. I always enjoy it when people tell me more about their childhood because then I can put the puzzle pieces together and they're like, Yeah, makes sense why you're who you are. And like one thing about questioning things is so my parents are Hindu. When I was younger, I had like a brief time where I grew up in Dubai, where I learned the Quran every day. When I moved back to India as a teenager, I went to a very, very Christian school where I read the Bible every day. By 10, I already started asking my mom. I was like, yo, is this real? Guess what my mom said? My mom was like, I don't have answers to all your questions. Why don't you figure out and teach me? So my mom has always like put this kind of mindset where she's like, no, you're on the you're a person of yourself. Like you can teach me new things too. And I feel like by 16, I was like, okay, I don't like I'm a person who ha who like, you know, thinks a lot to you know, like have like opinions on things, but I'm always like strong opinions, weakly held. If you give me new data points, like if tomorrow someone gives me like, oh, here's why God is real, great, then I'll change my mind. But then just this very like experimental, like, you know, data-driven way of life is like something that I feel like my mom like let me, allowed me when I was younger and eternally grateful for it.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

And tell me, have you traveled much with your mom? Or have you got any plans to travel with her?

SPEAKER_01 39:48

That's something I learned about my mom, which is she actually is not her thing. My mom is a person who enjoys siestas, she enjoys eating well, relaxed lifestyle. And she told me, even if I'm gonna travel, I actually just want to spend time with you. So why don't you come and see me as often as possible? So we made a deal, like every two to three months, I'll spend like a week or three weeks with my mom. And that is like, thankfully, I have a digital nomad lifestyle, and I'm very grateful for it that I'm able to spend so much time with my mom as an adult as well. So I try to visit her as often as possible. But yeah, that's like something like despite like are so much similarities between me and my mom, because I literally came from her. She's also an individual with her own take on life, and I want her to like be the way that is bringing happiness to her, which is very relaxed lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 40:39

Love that for her. I think that it takes time and takes listening to your heart to be able to work out how often you need to get back to see certain family and friends to make sure that it doesn't hurt too much.

SPEAKER_01 40:51

It doesn't have you seen that graph where like as people age, like the amount of time they spend with like different relationships, it's like a beautiful graph. I love graphs. Like, I literally have so many graphs, like just around like I okay. This is work motivation graph. It's like how persistent behavior shifts output distribution. It's like using base mathematical theorem as work motivation. This is like another graph. Um, but yeah, it's like a graph that shows that with time, like how like the time you spend with your parents becomes lesser and lesser. So you need to cherish them because we're all not gonna be around for a long time. And even if there's like rebirth, you you don't know if you're gonna end up with the same people again, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:32

Plus, it's just good fun if you enjoy spending time with people, if you get to spend more time with them. It's it's a good thing. Yes, 100%. I'm so pleased that other people get to hear this goodness. And oh, thank you so much. I so look forward to seeing these three-part your future uh endeavors coming to be. I think I so love to watch this film series. And thank you. Listen to the book if it's okay. Can we do audio as well? Listen, listen to your new new tracks as well. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:08

I I mean I'm in the process, I'm gonna revamp my website. I'm gonna like slowly start like start a stop stack because I did some research and I like that platform. But yeah, step by step, progress every day. I love it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming me, Sam. It's truly an honor. You're such a great host, and I love our mutual excitement for people in life.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius podcast. Please share this with anyone who's come to mind and visit us at naturalgenus.com.au. Thanks so much.